I think it is. In the aftermath of September 11, we had no choice but to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al Qaeda's training centers and kill and scatter as many al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists as possible. We did that, brilliantly. Bin Laden escaped by the skin of his teeth, but al Qaeda has never recovered from that initial devastation. Since then, for going on nine years, we have pursued a somewhat half-hearted peacekeeping/democracy policy in Afghanistan. The Bush administration was right, I think, not to devote excessive resources to Afghanistan

Salt the earth in the GD poppy fields, make it so they never grow another one, then get the hell out. Let em try to make a living renting lodging to the AQ freaks that are left and blow the crap out of every camp they ever try to establish. It won’t be regime change it will be a police action.

10
posted on 04/03/2011 6:21:50 PM PDT
by jessduntno
("Money...can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them." - Rand)

Afghanistan may never be a modern country and since there is practically no infrastructure, it is basically impossible to mount a modern war against them. You will never be able to defeat the Taliban if they can hide in Pakistan and then come back when we eventually leave.

13
posted on 04/03/2011 6:25:01 PM PDT
by Blood of Tyrants
(Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)

Some NATO countries have paid heavily in blood and lives - the US, Canada, Britain, and more - but for what?

We were trying to give the people a better place to live, and they just want to grow opium to poison our streets. We tried to give them a better government, and now it turns out Karzai and his family are as corrupt as they come, even being part of that opium-heroin business.

Time to get out of 90% of the countries we have our military in. Bring the troops home and put enough on our southern border to seal it.

Exploit our own oil resources both on and offshore.

Build one hundred new nuclear power plants.

End the Fed and back the buck with tangible assets like a basket of commodities.

Disolve the union known as the United States with each state becoming a nation state unto it’s own. They would then be free to form alliances with neighboring states as it suits their own political/economic beliefs. The commie libs can have New England. Conservatives their region. Libertarians theirs and so on.

Each state would then be free to deal with illegals as they see fit and so on.

Maximum freedom coupled with responsibility. Absolute protection of life, liberty and property by the downsized state gov’ts remaining.

What else. Socialists can all go to Cuba.

Right to keep and bear arms truly uninfringed so I can carry my Glock whereever and whenever on airplanes, courthouses and anywhere else I am inclined. If I were on one of the hijacked aircraft on 9/11 there would have been a handful of dead arabs and we would have kept flying to where the pilot wanted.

Yes. I had three returning nephews last year. Between them they served seven tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two Marines, one Army. The consensus of the last two (Marine/Army, working training camps) was that the US is merely in Afghanistan training the next round of terrorists for the Brotherhood for free! They absolutely couldln’t turn their backs on any one of them. The mission is incredibly stupid.

Bush had it right! Send in the drones, kill the terrorists and get out.

We should have let, why, helped the Soviets bring Workers Paradise to the land. At the very least, the historical monuments, destroyed later by the Talis, would have been preserved. Instead, we have our and our allies boys dying for nothing. Hopeless.

We shouldn't have been in Afghanistan for longer than it took for bin Laden to leave. Before we went in, we demanded that Afghanistan turn over the bin Laden gang in their country. Presumably, we wouldn't have gone in if the bin Laden gang had been turned over to us. When we went in and failed to capture our prey, which had fled to Pakistan, our purpose for going in escaped with bin Laden.

Why didn't we pursue bin Laden into Pakistan? That's never been clear to me.

Why didn't we leave Afghanistan after bin Laden escaped? Because that would have looked like a failed mission. So, instead of accepting a failed mission, we then had to change the mission to something that might eventually succeed or at least not fail for several years.

You know, there’s also one other very big advantage to getting out of Afghanistan -

currently, it’s surrounded by countries hostile / unwilling to help NATO there .... so every single supply must be flown or trucked in via Pakistan - and Pakistan is exploiting that fact to the max, including playing fast and loose with the Taliban, because they know they have us by the short hairs.

So getting out of Afghanistan allows us to finally tell Pakistan to go to hell and put the screws to those backstabbing bastards.

I agree that it's time to get out, but about 50-60 years ago (like Iran), Afghanistan was once a pretty normal nation (before radical Muslims destroyed it). Women wore skirts, attended the university and worked as teachers, doctors and nurses.

This article contains about 25 images of the country in the late 1950s/early 1960s. It didn't look that much different than the U.S.

I never gave two shits about girls going to school, or their women, or blah blah blah. Who cares? I care about AMERICANS. Bomb the living crap out them. Keep them in the Middle ages, napalm the poppy fields, and profile on airplanes so that every Afghan is cavity searched. Then GTFO.

Gee, I was saying that only two hours ago. Should have hit Mecca, Ridayh, Damascus, Baghdad, Tehran, Tripoli, southern Philippines, northern Sudan, northern Nigeria, Chechnia and Tirrane on 9/11.
Look at the military lives lost and the money squandered.

If we pull out we owe it to the northern minorities like the Uzbeks to arm them to teeth. The real scumbags in that part of the world are the Pashtuns. Our biggest mistake in Afghanistan was Karzai. We should of realized the Pashtuns were are enemy and could not be trusted. We should have just let the Northern Alliance take over the country. Instead we tried to placate the Pashtuns and Pakistan. Both the lowest form of pond scum.

we had no choice but to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al Qaeda's training centers and kill and scatter as many al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists as possible. We did that, brilliantly... The Bush administration was right, I think, not to devote excessive resources to Afghanistan...

Tell your Nephews, “Thanks for there duty”, from a old ground pounder!
I have a Niece and Nephew over there now and pray for them and all of our Military, whoever and where ever they serve!
Thanks to all our Service Personnel and may God Bless them!

Thanks. They served proudly and are brothers in one family. We were blessed. The only one to receive a wound, received it at Fort Hood, Texas where he was unarmed on US soil. The oldest was at both battles in Fallujah and saw some pretty severe actions. The second was a cryptologist/interpreter and was pretty lucky in his assignments at Bagram with a general and then a training unit. The youngest was Army engineer setting up remote camps and did a lot of IED line walking. Their guardian angels did excellent work. I will send up prayers for your family service members along with others. And thank them.

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